Are you looking for a *reason* Illuminatus, or is it simply treason to parochial minds to be in possession of such faculty for reason so as to examine the unthinkable; such as the very idea of contemplation for infinitude?
Illuminatus says:
Whilst talking to a fellow bioinformatition at 3 in the morning i discovered that many people, not only seeing my goal to live forever as impossible and selfish, they could not see a reason to live forever. My original thoughts were that to live forever is a survival instict, and for the sake of living. Yet noone seems convinced with my reasoning, and when i sit infront of a jury that are deciding to cull people because of overpopulation and choose why people should live or not, my "i was there when it started and i helped a bit" story might not work.
Survival is but one part, as another *spirit* of the mind is to create. It is all too often expressed as the darker, destructive form by all too many but still enough true creativity goes on to sustain humanity ad infinitum should we desire it. Why should the learning of wisdom and the coming of age for our species be wrong?
Why can't we grant ourselves the time and knowledge by which to better steward our own world?
For that to occur our species will need its records, but also its living *witness.* The creation of history is a direct vector for the power of memetic evolution and it is through our species that a paradigmatic shift from biologically based genetic evolution to an informational memetic form of evolution is taking place. Should fundamentalist resistance to such an idea surprise anyone?
Some of our species are already adapting (mutating) to a form more amenable for such a role within society.
It is also very obvious that we need to do a far better job at it than we are doing anyway. we need to stop depending on *freedom* as really just another word for *chance* (or evolution); but defined by the majority still as the
*Will of God.* We need to survive longer so as to address our species terrible short term memory for its own crimes. It is a tough job but somebody has to do it. [glasses]
Overpopulation is not a true threat as people will be freed from the strategy of poverty dependent higher procreativity that compensates for higher mortality. As we grow longer and wiser hopefully we will also acquire a different relationship to one another and our world. I suspect it is a primal fear of taking responsibility for this greater power that fosters the most fear among the fundamentalist mindset.
There are also the inevitable vagaries of the shifting socio-economic interdependence that contributes to anxiety but these should not be placed somehow on any exclusively Transhumanist interest in longevity. This misconduct has plagued the evolution of our species all along and relates more to how our social packs (tribes/clans) organized into *social structures*.
It is a global event that is occurring as a consequence of combined biological and social evolution driven by the global dissemination and impact of our species. Living long enough to learn from history so as to prevent its repetition is another part of the memetic drive to keep history *alive* through the form of first hand witness. This shift is inevitable and what matters more is making it healthy as opposed to wanton IMHO.
Selfish?
I believe it to be far more selfish of all too many to demand the right of selection for who lives and dies for others. Isn't it far worse to impose a death sentence through imposed ignorance of opportunity. What are we becoming?
A perverse Luddite culture of repressed puritans in response?
It is through the promulgation of ignorance that the people are ruled and this is a formula for tragedy or worse, probable disaster in the world humanity is creating. I live to learn and learn to live and each and everyday is a wonder to me. With every waking moment I experience the universe anew.
Hmmm, perhaps even asleep
)
